video conference TFT, for dummies

[RobW]

I'm the dummy here

Can anyone point to good resources for getting, let's say, 1 GM and 4 players together to play TFT by video link?

I know basically 0. I've used skype and facetime on a one-to-one basis.

We all want to see each other. We all want to see a map. How do you do that? How do people move during combat? Can it be made to work?

Off my lawn! Any experiences gratefully received. Get off my lawn!

[larsdangly]

I use Zoom, for several reasons: It tends to maintain better resolution and audio than other common services; it has a very easy, intuitive way of handling multi-party video conferences (the only trick is to make sure people understand that they shouldn't blather- just say what you need to say and shut up while others talk); and it has fun background visual options.

My group has been playing TFT regularly for about the last year and a half using video links - first using Skype, then a little Facebook Messenger, and now Zoom. It is great; the major trick is sorting out how to let people really see the battle mat clearly.

[TippetsTX]

Second vote for Zoom. I'm sure there are more full-featured solutions, but this works great for my group of friends scattered across the world (Texas, Florida, Minnesota and Germany).

I use my wife's laptop plus my phone to capture the tabletop. Pretty simple.

[RobW]

I will check out zoom, thanks!

What’s the rough limit on number of players that reasonably fit on a screen?

Are there custom stands to hold the phone? Or how do you like to do it? Feels like even a melee map would take up a lot of screen space?

[TippetsTX]

We're pretty low-tech. I usually hold the phone above the battle mat or find something to prop it up with. I've been trying to return to my old-school gameplay roots and only focus on the 'grid' when absolutely necessary.

[Shostak]

Check out Mook's blog post about GMing online.

[larsdangly]

Zoom accommodates very large numbers of participants (up to 30 is standard and I wouldn't be surprised if it goes higher). Any gaming group could easily fit.

[larsdangly]

My experience doing this with TFT, which is a very visual game, is that it is key to your experience to sort out how you will orient the camera so that it has a good view of the action. I'm not doing this in a really ideal way right now; I really need to get a second, separate camera going. It never occurred to me that I might be able to mirror my phone as a second camera! Can you explain to a techno-dolt how this would work?

[TippetsTX]

Again, I went with the simplest approach... the laptop camera connects via one Zoom account (my wife's) and the phone is on another.

[MikMod]

Cool thread guys!

How do you manage dice rolls? :/